On Monday afternoon a small white car rammed into a police van driving down Paris’ famous Champs-Elysees.
Police immediately grabbed the driver and pulled him to the ground as his car burst into flames. According to authorities, the driver intentionally drove into the police van, driving with a police squadron.
“The car contained weapons, explosives, enough to allow him to blow up this car,” said Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.
No officers or members of the public were hurt; however, the driver soon died from his injuries.
“We were waiting to cross the street and suddenly heard an explosion and the car in flames. The police acted very quickly, ” stated Eugenio Morcilla, a tourist who took a video of the incident.
“They got out of a police truck and tried to break the glass and take the man out, they shot and threw tear gas and they took him out by force…” continued Morcilla, who was on vacation with his girlfriend.
French security forces identified the weapons in the car and are currently investigating “the individual’s past [to] see what motives pushed him to take action,” according to Collomb.
As they investigated, police blocked off the area to the public. Around 20 police vans and several armed officers surrounded the driver sprawled on the ground.
Unfortunately, this attack was nothing new. Numerous attacks against Parisian security forces have occurred this year, with Monday’s incident being the fifth one in four months.
In May, a man attacked an officer with a hammer at Notre-Dame Cathedral, shouting, “This is for Syria!” Fortunately, the man did not seriously injure the officer.
A man named Karim Cheurfi also shot at police officers on the Champs-Elysees in April, killing one officer and wounding two. Cheurfi tried to escape, but police shot and killed him. ISIS proclaimed that Cheurfi was one of its members, and police found a note declaring allegiance to ISIS in his pocket.
In March, a man pulled a gun on a French female soldier at Orly Airport, shouting “I am here to die in the name of Allah…There will be deaths.” He was soon shot and killed by two soldiers.
The month before this airport attack, a man holding a machete rushed towards a group of soldiers and guards near the Louvre museum. Soldiers shot him before he could harm the group.
Because of the heightened terrorism in the French capital, the country has developed a terror/radicalization watch list called ‘Fiche S’, including thousands of names. Some of the names are under active surveillance, meaning they are on the law enforcement’s radar. However, they are not necessarily under rigorous surveillance.
Nonetheless, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an anti-terror investigation following Monday’s attack.
“Once again, France’s security forces have been targeted in an attempted attack on the Champs-Elysées,” said Collomb. “This shows…that the threat level in France is extremely high.”
